Namely, is there a way to do it? I am absolutely sick of running into the Sheriff backstory and that Political Assassin girl. They tend to be good shots (And yet always have a knife...) but really can't do anything.
If you're into modding, you can install EdB's Prepare Carefully mod, for one possibility. It allows complete customization of each colonist, up to ten starting pawns.
Yes, but it isn't them coming up before it starts that bothers me, I hate when they are the only people I can seem to Incap...